Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids

Mythic Creatures | Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids

Nasca Killer Whale

Can mythic creatures become extinct?
All mythic creatures are mysterious. No one really knows where these stories come from, what they mean, or why they appeal to us so much. The best way to get answers about myths and other stories is to ask the people who tell them. But what if all those people are gone, their songs and stories silent forever? And what if there is no written record of the culture that produced a mythical creature? Anthropologists, archaeologists and psychologists can offer powerful theories and profound insights by studying artifacts. But in many cases, the ultimate answer for questions about myths is: we will never know for certain.

A killer whale...clutching a human head? The ancient people known today as the Nasca painted this startling creature on their pottery and carved enormous outlines of it into the ground. Who is this beast? What does it do with the human heads it carries? No one knows.

The Nasca people lived along the coast of South America in what is now Peru from around AD 1 until about 700. Then they disappeared. Their colorful ceramics are covered with puzzling images such as the mythic killer whale—but there is no one left to explain what these images mean.

At a Glance: Nasca Whale

	The killer whale is just one of many mythic creatures depicted on Nasca pottery; others look like birds, monkeys, serpents and people.
	Mythic killer whale has more fins on its back than actual whale
	Often shown with hands instead of fins
	Carries a human head, but is not necessarily evil; the Nasca people of Peru themselves collected human skulls. Were they headhunters? Were they tending their own ancestors?

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